I Modernized the Fallout 2 UI

[@Loreworx]

I fully expect this video to be divisive. It will always be when you touch a classic. Modern UI/UX design is clean (look at the new Fallout games). Retro design is not. Some people may not like the changes, and some may. That's ok. It's just a video guys 😊 The Fallout 2 version I redesigned uses the HIGH RESOLUTION PATCH and RESTORATION PROJECT Check out how to install them here: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=194992741

[@badunius_code]

16:35 there's also a perk that colors conversation options according to NPC reaction (negative/positive) to the line

[@phdean9908]

I liked the proposed changes, it would make me try fallout again. There are a few comments saying "not good" but not really offering any explanation for their belief or what seems more likely, their feelings. I played the original fallout, I wasnt a super fan so I have no particular nostalgia for fallout. I did not remember how a large amount of the original UI even looked anymore and when previewing it honestly some things were entirely unclear to me even having played the game a long time ago. To me the new UI looks cleaner and like I could jump in and just figure out how to play the game. Honestly yes it probably loses some aesthetic since the original was designed a particular way in a specific era of gaming.

[@Loreworx]

I understand some people not liking it because touching a classic, to them, is a no-no. I personally don't have these feelings for older stuff I love - Companies can do whatever to remake stuff and if it sucks, I'll still have the original - But I get it, and I knew that going in. The idea here was to modernize the UI as if the game was designed to come out in 2024, and modern UI design is much more concerned with UX than style. That is left to the game itself, rather than the interface. That said, I was purposeful in adding some stylistic touches, rather than going for a clean monochrome fallout 4 look. Im glad you liked it. Thank you for watching and for the thoughtful comment!

[@KeiNovak]

omg you actually did it!

[@Loreworx]

Took me a lil while but it was kinda fun! Thank you for the suggestion. I hope I did it justice!

[@KeiNovak]

@@Loreworx It was awesome! Lots of it makes more sense when laid out like you did. Also, I was very amused when you used my name as an NPC haha. I hope Tim gets a chance to see this.

[@Loreworx]

Glad you caught the easter egg lol

[@ay9lx]

Most of it looks good to me, except for the health bars over the enemies. I feel that your redesign will truly shine once you´re actually playing the game, rather than just looking at it. In case you´re looking for another video idea, why not take a look at the UI of recent Studio Zero releases? (Persona 5, Persona 3 Reload, and now Metaphor ReFantazio) I don´t think they need a redesign but maybe a closer look from someone with experience actually creating UI? I find the work of this team absolutely incredible in terms of both style and engaging the player with menu design alone and it would be interesting to hear your opinion on it

[@Loreworx]

Ive actually never played the persona games but always had them on my wishlist. Might take a look at them. I think persona 5 looks amazing. Its always fun when you can go nuts on the interface because the anime/comic book look gives you that freedom As for this redesign, yeah, ux changes would really make a difference during gameplay. Its certainly a lot cleaner than the original from a style pov, but i also didnt go full fallout 3/4 with the super minimal monochrome UI (other than the pip boy). I actually debated for a while (internally) about how I'd show the health states over enemies (not really a hp bar). I thought of a 3 piece heart for instance, but that just seemed out of place in the fallout universe. Even if i used a realistic heart (instead of this ❤️). So i went with the little bars which i thought were unintrusive, but im not 100% satisfied with it. Just gotta move on though otherwise I never post 🤣 Thanks for watching and commenting

[@ay9lx]

​@@Loreworx Thanks for responding! Persona 5 seems like a great entry point for players new to the series, although its not my favorite. They did go really hard on the UI though. As for the health display, I´d probably just leave it out and make the enemies actually appear hurt/damaged, though that obviously isn´t within the scope of a UI redesign. The realistic heart idea sounds kind of neat to be honest😄

[@badunius_code]

6:05 they go over a hundred, because there are circumstances that lower your chances. To counter that you can have more than a 100 percent chance.

[@Loreworx]

It acts like a simple number value, not a percentage

[@DetectivePoofPoof]

I DO like the UX and how the elements are placed in the new version a lot, but I disagree with the artistic direction change for this one, and you could have the new changes while still keeping the diegetic feel of the old interface. As it stands its a lot more user-friendly now, but it has lost nearly all of its character and the idea of it feeling like you're interacting an old analog machine was a great touch in the original. And I think you really could have had both. Also I don't like how the AP and numbers cut into the item icons, there may be a way to still see them clearly while also having the icons not be obstructed somehow but I don't know how to handle that best.

[@Azerog]

I love the background songs you guys use.

[@Loreworx]

Oh fernando is gonna love you (fernando adds the music)

[@nsp477]

I would play the game again with this interface.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

Was a bit concerned with this, given how this usually means changing a lot of stuff. But props for not changing any mechanics to make it more "convenient" Personally I like the new UI, though I get why some people in the comments dislike that it's less diegetic.

[@Loreworx]

Yep. Modern UI is more minimal and consequently less diegetic. I get it too. But I obviously prefer the minimalist approach. If F2 was released in 2024 with the original UI, it would have gotten a lot of criticism. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@cgollimusic]

WTF KZbin. Why wasn't this in my recommended?

[@Loreworx]

🤣 Thanks for watching!

[@xKingRognarx]

really good redesigne, but i think only one thing needs further work - chosen option (strips doesn't work well imp). Obviously it's just nitpiking cuz i know how little time you've spent on this comparitivly to that of original devs and making in this time such a nice work is amazing

[@Loreworx]

You mean the striped borders on active buttons? So, that was actually something I took from the original UI. I wanted to take things from the original so it still had some of the flavor. But I could see it being more readable with a color change or something instead. Thank you for watching!

[@mightyn8]

I think the most interesting aspect of your redesign is that you made the UI be in some ways very similar to the UI of The Outer Worlds, which of course had Tim Cain (original Fallout dev!) as the game director. And I do think that the UI in The Outer Worlds is nice, clean, and also evocative of the setting, so I think it makes perfect sense that that's essentially what a modern Fallout UI *should* look like.

[@Loreworx]

Oh wow i didnt know tim directed outer worlds. I actually didnt really look at outer worlds for inspiration here. I looked at divinity original sin 2 and bg 3 as cornerstone modern crpgs and tried to redesign f2 with the inspiration from those two games. But yeah i can def see the resemblance with some of the outer worlds ui. Thanks for pointing that out. That was cool

[@LongRest]

This is what healthy critic of old games looks like! You've used modern knowledge to analyze old game but made changes respectfully to the original. I wish we would be able to play Fallout 2 Remastered with your design and few other mods so modern players could enjoy more classic games.

[@Loreworx]

Thank you for the kind words. I tried to reimagine the game as if it was being released in 2024, not 1998. Times have changed and the classic UI simply doesn't work in today's market. It was a fun creative challenge :)

[@badunius_code]

5:15 description of the things you "inspect" are also go into this window.

[@Loreworx]

Yep. A lot of stuff goes in that terminal box

[@TestName931]

I like your UI layout wise, but in my honest opinion (dont take this in rude way or mean way), you fall into the pitfall that a lot of modern game UI's have where Skeuomorphism = Bad. I get why skeuomorphic interface fell out favor for favor for software, but gaming? why? Thats why i hate skyrims interface, even though the layout is great, thematically its all like glass slate looking. Its like why? This is the viking game. Its super weird. I think Oblivion really had it right for UI, usable, and themed after the game world (inventory looks like parchment and such). Its why kingdom come deliverance's interface is so amazing too. Imo, Skeuomorphic interface should be maintained for fallout, even for your redesign. I think your redesigned layout is good, but visually you did the skyrim-esque transparent slate which just looks off. So all in all, your layout + OG skeuomorphic pip boy elements would be best in my opinion. Great video though, love to see people talking about classic fallout.

[@Loreworx]

Not at all! I wouldn't publish videos if I didn't welcome criticism! Modern game UI design is minimalist for several reasons and it would take an essay to really go into this, but the main reasons are the evolution in complexity and graphical fidelity of games, where the game world and the game screen itself became, over time, the main star of the show and what players care most about; and the focus on experience (UX), rather than aesthetics (UI), and I think we all benefit from it. I understand you don't like the Skyrim UI. I personally do. A lot of gamers do (not the screens - those need Sky UI to be decent - but the HUD). I'm assuming you probably don't like the modern Fallout games' HUD either, as they're extremely minimalist... save for the Pip Boy, which looks great and is very immersive, but is also absolutely horrific UX (at least cover the damn screen with it, Bethesda). I have a video on the KCD 2 UI. It's probably my favorite UI of all time. The HUD is modern, and minimal. The game screens that cover your entire screen (inventory, map, codex, etc), are all heavily stylized, but done so in a much better way than KCD 1, focusing on UX. When game screens fill your entire screen... that's when you go heavier on the aesthetic in modern UI design. In the classic Fallout games, with the high def patch, the screens I redesigned do NOT cover the whole canvas. They're more like windows. Modern design tends to keep windows minimalistic. Baldur's Gate 3 is a great example of this: all of the windows and pop ups are minimal, but the design is a lot more stylistic in full screens like the level up screen and the illithid/parasite power screen. Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@TestName931]

@@Loreworx Yeah im pretty mixed on modern fallout hud. Not because skeuomorphism but because the game doesnt really need the hud. Like your screen gets bloodier as you get damaged (and provides feedback when your crippled ie. movement slow for crippled legs, aim messed up for crippled arms), compass could be minimalized and centered, and when do you even need to see your AP outside of VATS? Ammo count doesnt really need to be perpetually visible either and could be reduced to a weapon mod physically on the weapon if they really wanted to let the player have it. On PC, i just play HUDless for that reason. Pipboy could be better as you said. But yeah i do see your point for skyrim, especially in the UX department. I think i moreso dont like the theming-visuals of like inventories and such, the normal HUD elements are excellent (compass, mana, health). Glad you love the KCD HUD, im super hyped for KCD 2 as well. Also, I would love to see your take on FROMSOFTWARE hud at some point, maybe for Elden Ring or Armored Core 6.

[@mightyn8]

As a suggestion, I'd love to see you redesigning the UI of Disco Elysium. I think overall it's very well made, but very curious to see if you as a designer can see things needing improvement!

[@Loreworx]

Disco elysium is fantastic. I never finished that game and havent looked at it in a while but i remember being impressed by it in general. Ill keep it in my mind. Thanks for the suggestion

[@iamwill737]

I have Fallout 1 and 2 on my library but never played it for more then 1 hour. I just could not understand the UI or what was going on. I think this new UI is much better for new players.

[@shiverr1337]

The UX got better, the UI got worse. The lime green had it purpose and it did not look bad, it was artistic choice. The dialogue window (standard) focused your view on NPC, your design doesn't do that. Not a fan of quick slots either, they don't fit to game mechanics well and general item slots served as quick slots before. The proposed UI just looks boring and generic.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

Unsure what you mean it not fitting game mechanics? Mostly since I had concerns about that, but they're equivalent to having to open the inventory and use the item, mechanics-wise.

[@shiverr1337]

@@MaakaSakuranbo I mean it works with game mechanics (using any amount of consumable item once spending sufficient amount of APs to open an inventory), but showing this number on UI to nullyfy it after single use and then reset it after ending your turn is VERY clunky and confusing for someone who doesn't know where this logic originated from.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

@@shiverr1337 Yeah, that's fair. Tbf, i'm not sure how else you'd do it heh

[@badunius_code]

7:10 how about reload and aimed shots?

[@Gabrilos505]

If these videos turned into mods for the games I'd be so happy...

[@Loreworx]

Aw man... I love mods. Been modding games for 20 years now. I just dont have the time anymore though. Id be honored if the videos inspire the developers or other fellow modders 😊 Thank you for watching!

[@Gabrilos505]

Nah man, thank YOU! Your content is amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever subscribed to a channel this quickly.

[@Edheldui]

The percentages are there because the game uses a percentile system for the dice rolls. And yes, you can go over 100%, those always succeed unless you roll a critical fail. Also removing the neon green is just a crime, it's an integral part of the old school sci-fi aethetics. Removing it is the equivalent of removing the paper sound effect when you open the map in a fantasy game.

[@Loreworx]

Its a number system. Percentile or not. Its numbers. Showing % and letting players go over 100% is simply unintuitive. The green is still there just not all over the interface. Theres a reason all modern fallout games let you remove it: some people find it annoying. I play f3, nv and f4 with a white hud. ive also played many fantasy games without a paper sfx on the map lol

[@LordsofMedia]

but the fallout tech was clunky 1930-1950s tech design. Maybe you don't have much experience with old analog gear? Your designs are cleaner, thus missing the point entirely.

[@Loreworx]

Yep. Modern UI design is cleaner. The newer fallout games are also cleaner. You leave the clunky tech stuff to the actual game instead of the interface. But i knew there would be people who didnt like the cleaner look when i posted. Thanks for watching and commenting 😊

[@GREENWZRD96]

Yep. My first thought when I saw the video title was, "Why?" Not a, "Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy," just a, "Why?"

[@badunius_code]

How about Arcanum? They already have clean dialogue windows, kinda like what you did.

[@Stimbim]

BLASPHEMY.

[@SolearGnG]

What are you talking about, man, that F1 inventory was great.. :D Also, the person who decided in f1 to make the transfer items a single button increasee a number, I'd probably whip till they are red as a lobster.. F2 made it indiviidually scrolling numbers, thank the havens, but still.. What I love about F1-2 inventories is that they fit the game well. Too much work, but I thought it looked nice. Now let me watch the video too :D - I don't agree that pip char and inv buttons don't belong on the interface - you say people will use shortcuts, but without knowing what is the shortcut for what, people won't know those things. It's not an immersive FPS where minimal interface is preferred.. You have time in fallout games. Your interface is made with a philosophy that the world moves when you let it. It was made to be enjoyed at your own pace. You want to stand up and get a tea? Go at it. The game won't go anywhere.. - The action points - I don't know it didn't look too small to me, and the plain colors in the middle of your screan was well made I think. You always look there, and it's quickly and easily communicating the amount of action you can take.. The bright colors make it pop enough that I wouldn't say they need to be bigger than what they are. As long as they remain centered and bright, I'd say they are good as they are. - The log, I thought was really good.. It is tied into the interface being a machine console, and that normally has logs, that an artist might not appreciate it as deeply as someone like a programmer. Logs are critical for anyone doing programming. That tells you what happened, and why. The log being there and being as detailed as it is actually sells a lot of things in this game. It alone makes the game an RPG where you see what you rolled and what happened. You can see unexpected things, and the outcome of the "look" feature. In modern game those things would be an "inner thought" or something like that, but in old time, text was the way. And what gives F1-2 ther depths partly is that you can look at everything, and you can read about how it looks. "it looks hurt" - their tech couldn't display that yet so the only way to see that is reading about it. The magic of Fallout would be lost without that log.. - The AP cost of opening an inventory in your edit doesn't really work.. if it would be something that would appear in brackets when you hover over the inv button that could work, but not as a separate text above it, in the same size - It wouldn't tell me that it's the cost of openinng inventory, it would tell me that next to inventory and map etc there's some other menu called AP4 - I like the skilldex changes. They used percentages, because success in some cases depend on other factors like distance. they can go up to 200% which means you shoot better accuracy even on longer distances. There's probably a good reasoning behind it.. - Not sure why max health is important. I think that's a modern thing that comes form over-healing, but since you use stimpacks anyway and they are point heal + percentage chance, it doesn't matter what your max health is, just that you have more stim packs. - Quick slots: I'd say I'm against that, since it was a tactical choice. The idea behind that was that you can't wobble around in your inventory mid combat in real life either, at least not without consequences.. Making them a quick slot would mean you rob the player from the tactical choice of whether they want to spend AP to go into inventory and change things up a bit. - Why was AC important enough to keep? I would have kept the use mode burst and such on the picture of the item top right as it was, with perhaps a bit more visible color. It was a nice way to indicate which use mode was active without distracting. It was also obvious that it belongs to that thing without taking up their own space, like in your edit under the items.. They don't need to take up their own space for use mode.. - I like your idea and implementation of 3 health bars above the enemies but I'd still not use it.. Maybe if there would be smaller? a dot? My problem with it is, that F1-2 was built heavily in your seeing the world, their graphics was one of the greatest selling points.. Cluttering the screen with 3 health bars for enemies would remove from the immersion. That area is what immersive FPS games would want to simplfy and remove all UI from, that space needs to be CLEAN as a whistle.. For that reason I'd not put floating damage numbers there either.. anything that clutters that main screen is a big ass no-no.. If you want to indicate enemy health you can do ith with character pose.. Slouching, kneeling lying down etc. Not with text and bars.. Oh no, my man.. - I know that the original UI also has square and rounded square parts, but simplifying it makes it not so good I think. The original UI was routed in the screen and cathode computer stuff, things like the rounaded sun shade over certain inventory elements made sense. When you take the graphics away, and keep only the shape, it makes stuff incoherent and mismatching.. - The sort and filter buttons are good, but if you have a bigger inventory , then you don't need filter.. especially if you have scroll in a 3 line inventory.. I'd say most people would be OK just a sort heaviest first button that would toggle between sort by weight and name and that's it. - The done button being only registering the click on the red part is also intentional. You don't press the lable on anything mechanical and expect to activate it. The original UI was mechanically driven, so colors are intentionally chooosen, red green, etc. The labels are added as label, and if you'd have been around older electronics you'd know why that Done label was instantly considered NOT clickable in the UI and nobody expected that to close the inventory when clicked on. - The carry weight under the inventory is not a bad addition but why make it red like health? Why not yellow as something related to stamina? - The take all inventory button needed the player inventory since you not only take, but sometimes need to give, and sometimes you can give when it's not intentional.. You never tried to use steal to put a ticking detonator in someone's pants, and that shows, ma man.. You should check Fallout Tactics UI - when I first saw the new high res F1-2 UI that reminded me of that.. By the way, even with high res UI, sometimes it's better to not crank up the resolution. I play with the new UI but limit the res to 1080, even though I could play in 2k. The game just looks better with lower res. Native 2k doesn't look good in the game and in the UI either. The original resolution was too low, the moder is too high.. Somewhere inbetween is a golden road, I think..

[@Loreworx]

Hey! Thank you for writing such a detailed comment. Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to be on my pc to reply to this cuz using the phone would prolly suck and I wanted to do you justice. Let's go point by point The idea of the video was to redesign the UI as if Fallout 2 was being released in 2024. I probably could have communicated that better in the video, and that's on me. I'm fairly confident the game would be heavily criticized for the original UI/UX if it came out as is, today. The majority of the criticism is coming from players of the original game, and I totally get that, and I love getting comments like yours. 1 - They do belong on the interface, just not in the center of the screen, as they're not important like your health, action points, etc. That's why I put them someplace else, where they're not in focus, just like in modern crpgs. 2 - I'll skip this one because it's really just opinion and we all have our own :P If you played using the HD patch in 1080p and you still think they don't look small, that's great. 3 - I like the existence of the log, and I like how it shows everything. I just changed the UX here. Using that log is a horrible experience. It is definitely immersive, but so is the pip boy inventory in Fallout 3 and beyond. Using that pip boy sucks. I mean, at least make it take up more of the screen, bethesda ffs lol Speaking of programming, I've spent plenty of time with programmers, and all of their code is color-coded. The programmers here at the studio would probably get headaches if visual studio was entirely green lol 4 - Why would you associate there being another menu called AP 4? I don't really understand that reasoning. It's not a button either, so you can't click it. I feel it's important to have the AP cost of opening your inventory on the game screen, because the game doesn't tell you that, and players usually just instinctively press i on the keyboard without thinking, so players hovering over the inventory button is definitely not a guarantee. Having the AP cost attached to the INV button would at least help in understanding why you're losing 4 AP when pressing i during combat. Older games used manuals to teach these things. If you wanted to release this game today, you'd have to tutorialize this kind of information. 5 - All of the reasons as to why you can go over over 100% also apply to standard numbers. They display percentages, but they're just using numbers. I removed the symbol because it can confuse (you can go over 100%, but the game doesn't tell you that, and common logic dictates that you shouldn't be able to), and because removing it further cleans the interface. 6 - Again, personal preference here. Your max health has always been important in rpgs, and pretty much every rpg I've ever played show your current/max hp either in text, visually, or both. Even famous rpgs that released around 1998 do this. You simply wouldnt use a stimpak if you were at 89/90. 7 - The idea of the hotbar with 3 quickslots here was to simulate as best as possible the consequences of opening your inventory and using consumables in the game. That's why they have the same AP cost of 4, and would then reduce to AP 0 until the end of the turn. It's literally the same thing as opening your inventory and using the items in there, with a focus on UX, as it saves several clicks, and possible scrolling. 8 - The AC bar has a purpose in the game. It also shows the enemy AC when they take turns. While I wouldn't have this in my own CRPG (if I was making one), I didn't feel strongly enough to remove it from this one. But I agree with you, I don't think it's that important. I placed the use modes below the items because I wanted to emphasize AP cost, and adding the use mode to the top right corner makes the item tile way too busy. I tried that first. 9 - While I much prefer to have characters change their physical state according to their health states, that goes beyond a UI redesign. The little bars could be visible by holding or pressing a highlight button like TAB or ` or ALT... or even just by hovering over an enemy. The floating damage numbers don't clutter the screen. They disappear. Again, this is personal preference. You prefer seeing all your information in that message log, I most certainly do not. Thankfully for us, most modern crpgs let us turn these off or keep them on :) 10 - This is a good point, and something I thought about as I was designing this. It was a balancing act of trying to keep a few aspects of the old design and modernizing it. 11 - You're probably right, especially in a game that doesn't have that many items. That said, it's almost never a bad thing to give players options, and it doesn't affect the UX negatively to simply have the button on the screen. 12 - Yes, it's intentional, and the logic behind the decision was quite clear to me. It's still bad UX. Allowing players to press ESC or i again (for closing the inventory, as well as opening it, for instance) would also help the experience here. 13 - It's red because yellow didnt look good, especially with the white text over it :P Also this game doesn't use yellow for stamina, that's just a color we link to stamina from other rpgs (a lot use green though). I'd actually rather have it change colors so that red means you're nearing your limit. 14 - You said it yourself. Sometimes you need to give. Sometimes is the key word. The vast majority of times, you're just looting. That's why the quick inventory button is there. Imagine if every single container opened your inventory automatically in baldurs gate 3. God that would suck. 15 - Yeah, there's no real scaling, like I said in the video, so it's definitely something to tinker with. A really enjoy discussing this kind of stuff. Thanks again for taking the time to write.

[@gorevidget]

I don't like it at all. This user interface completely lacks any style. An original UI is the work of an artist (literally), but this one the work of a bureaucrat.

[@vorathiel12345]

Instead of doing things this way, you should try to do things in other direction. Take some bland modern minimalistic design and add some diegetic flavour, like in original Fallouts.

[@Loreworx]

I have plans of trying something like that with AC shadows when I have more footage of that interface. I wanna challenge myself to see if I can make that UI look more Japanese. Might be fun.

[@koihc]

Modern design, much like modernist architecture, has a sickness where designers/architects remove all flair and beauty from their elements. In modernist architecture, everything becomes cold concrete boxes that nobody wants to be around. In modern UI, everything becomes flavorless plain boxes. Unfortunate, "cleaner" doesn't mean more pleasant to look at. This is why modern buildings that can be found all over the world have no personality and nobody plans a trip to another country's business district to look at their glass and concrete buildings. Similarly, all plain boxed UI becomes this modern designer/architect's fetish that appears in every game and look like every other game regardless of genre. Don't take this personally, this isn't a criticism of you. This is a criticism of modern design/style. The old UX was certainly bad and you've definitely improved it, but in general I'd say it has way less personality and flavor. It's not something you look at and appreciate, just something you use, much like "Form Follows Function" in architecture. Did you know that some of the most time proven programming patterns were inspired by legendary (non-modern) architects?

[@Loreworx]

Its a valid criticism of modern UI design, though I cant say I share the same opinion. Gaming places a lot more importance on UX than UI today and IMO we're all better for it. Unfortunately that comes with the drawbacks of minimalist interfaces that lack the style of older design. The design philosophy of modern game UIs is to let the game itself show style and to not get in the way of your experience. It is not the star of the show. Youre not supposed to look at the interface. Youre supposed to look at the game. I dont think the comparison with contemporary architecture works here, because a building is like the game itself, and not simply its interface. Buildings are made to be the center of attention. Modern UI is not. The game itself is. IMO while my redesign certainly is a looot less stylistic than the original, it is nowhere near is minimalistic as fallout 4 with its monochrome UI. I did try to keep some of the original's flavor. But i totally understand its not for everyone. I will say though, that if fallout 2 was releasing in 2024 (as a totally new release. Not a remaster), it would be heavily criticized for its interface and UX. That's just how the market is today and is not a blemish on the game, which for its time, was excellent. Thank you for commenting. I really enjoy these well thought out comments 😊

[@koihc]

@@Loreworx Fallout 1 & 2's numerous UX flaws were recognized all the way back to release, nobody's blinded by nostalgia here. Function and beauty are not mutually exclusive. When present, borders and backgrounds add character and flavor akin to moldings, friezes, and wall/floor textures. To me, the interface is the game and not a separate entity. The categorization of these visual elements is merely conceptual. The closer a game contains the modern web design look, the more I'm put off by it. A recent example is "Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time", where the UI was so modern that it turned me away from the game. I've been through the modern phase myself. The clean look has a place too, depending on how productivity-focused you want something to look. On the extreme end, that's where spreadsheets live. This reminds me of why wireframe tools using a sketchy style, because you convey the UX without implying anything about the UI. That's the lens I used to look at your design, more like a draft of a UX that will be dressed up in a later development stage, and for that it's pretty decent.

[@vorathiel12345]

@@koihc Oh how much I agree. The very good example is original Baldurs Gate 1 and Icewind Dale 1 UI. The 'remakes' or whatever they called made UI looks much closer to BG2, and removes a lot of 'flavour' which, and I can't stress that enough ADDS A LOT OF ATMOSPHERE to the game. (minimal designs also can be very 'moody', but it must fits the game (fe Prey 2017, or Starfield [which both are futuristic science fiction, wonder why...]).

[@MechPoblete]

Good ui for a modern game, but really bad for a fallout one. Total lost the artistic cohesion and context of the original game. This is why we have creative and artistic directors and ui and ux work under them, to avoid this disconnect.

[@Loreworx]

Compared to the original game, yes, its a lot less stylized. Compared to the modern fallout game UIs though? Im assuming you don't like those either as theyre entirely monochrome and minimal and the only thing fallout is the pipboy (which then has its own extremely minimal ui monochrome ui inside). Genuinely curious to know your thoughts on those interfaces.

[@MechPoblete]

@Loreworx the modern games are fps, the originals are crpgs. Two different games from two different eras, with totally different ux. As an example, in the modern game you have direct inter action with the world, the world itself could do the heavy lifting, on crpgs you're detached from the world, environment. Like I said, a unified coherent art direction, I felt the new ui was more battletech than fallout.

[@timmygilbert4102]

I have never played fallout, your version is so bad in terms of readability, i had to scan to find thing, absolutely no go 😢 you tend to produce UI with elements that float in space with no sense of cohesion, like your veilguard one, they get lost with thevgame as background as element compete with the game visual, a nightmare to me...

[@Loreworx]

Interesting. Out of curiosity, what is one game UI you really like?

[@timmygilbert4102]

@Loreworx easy, all UI I Don't notice, therefore, do not complain. Your video about the medieval game was 👍 good. But the hierarchical composition was already good in the original game, easy to scan, different area with different function had different identity, which you remove for example in this video, the stat screen was too uniform and element started to blend, do a squint test against the original which had clear hi level block to help navigate, another problem with removing the background from dialogue, the rest and framing buffer provided by the original is gone, hence visual frequency nightmare. Similarly in veilguard, you removed the ring, it was a bit heavy, but it also helped the gestalt leading the eyes to tie skills together, while framing the target of the skill, without it you just have a bunch of high frequency data on the same visual hierarchy with no lead. In the medieval game, my only minor complaint is that the background of the skill tree is too close in visual frequency with the skill tree, it's not as damning than other example, just a minor annoyance, since instead of following the line of the tree, I get distracted every time it intersect with the background line art. If you want to visualize visual frequency, use a high pass filter, the strength of results indicate contrast strength, great image can have plenty of details, but in the high pass it becomes deceptively simple. I also hsl (not hsv) decomposition to look (and maipulate) at hue, saturation and luminosity contrast separately.

[@Ally4Gamer]

the new UI design is terrible. You should leave this work to professionals